Campaign Action
Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump and Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, angry over the state’s numerous pro-immigrant actions, have accused Democratic California leaders of flagrant disregard of the law and of making cities and localities more dangerous through so-called “sanctuary city” policies. No surprise, they’re flat-out wrong.
Not only do these policies follow the law, but they make cities safer, because when immigrant families aren’t afraid of being turned over to ICE by local law enforcement, they’re more likely to report crimes. That makes communities safer for all. And as California Attorney General Xavier Becerra writes, his state is “in the business of public safety, not deportation.”:
Our state laws fully comply with federal law and the U.S. Constitution. While the Constitution gives the federal government the primary responsibility to enforce immigration laws, it also provides state and local governments with broad power to regulate their local public-safety work, so long as they do not reach into areas under the control of the federal government.
In fact, the Constitution — in particular, the 10th Amendment — prohibits the federal government from commandeering state and local governments to enforce a federal program.
None of our state’s laws regulate immigration or interfere with the ability of federal immigration authorities to do their jobs. Rather, California is acting on its own turf by regulating its own law enforcement officers, detention facilities and workplaces to ensure that the confidentiality of the state’s residents is safeguarded and their constitutional rights protected.
“California laws and policies do not provide ‘sanctuary’ for criminals,” Becerra continues. “We aggressively go after criminals, regardless of their immigration status.” And, police don’t want to do the job of mass deportation agents. If anything, it’s Trump and Sessions who are making the jobs of police harder and communities more dangerous. “When you create a shadow population . . . that fears any interaction [with law enforcement], then you create a whole population of victims,” said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, “because they become prey for human predators who extort them or abuse them because they know they won’t contact the police.”
Trump, Sessions and acting ICE director Thomas Homan have been infuriated over Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s recent call on her immigrant residents to know their rights in anticipation of an imminent raid. Ultimately, half of the immigrants arrested in ICE’s sweep had no criminal record at all. That hasn’t stopped Trump and his officials from continuing to cast immigrants as criminals and dangerous people, when in fact they’re less likely than U.S.-born Americans to commit crime:
In announcing the administration’s lawsuit, Sessions erroneously attributed an uptick in crime to a lack of enforcement of immigration laws and overlooked a century of research demonstrating that immigrants are no more likely than U.S. citizens to commit crimes.
In fact, both the Cato Institute and Center for American Progress found last year that more diverse communities with more immigrants have lower crime rates.
The Cato Institute concluded that undocumented people age 18-54 are 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born individuals, while documented immigrants are 69 percent less likely to be incarcerated than U.S.-born individuals. The Center for American Progress found that counties that limited law enforcement participation in civil immigration enforcement had lower crime rates and stronger economies than comparable counties that did not.
“People who come to our country in search of a better life for themselves and their children are more likely to follow the laws and enrich their communities,” he continued. Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants and former 12-term congressmen from L.A., has taken the Trump administration to court 28 times on issues ranging from “auto fuel-efficiency standards, the proposed expansion of oil drilling off the California coast, and the construction of Trump’s cherished border wall”:
We can stand simultaneously with law enforcement and our immigrant communities. We can vigorously enforce our criminal laws against those who have committed serious and violent crimes and be heartbroken to hear stories of families being torn apart by deportations.
“California, as fully authorized under the Constitution and federal law, has made its own determination for how best to strike that balance,” Becerra writes. “I will continue to zealously fight to defend our state laws and protect the public safety of all Californians.”